Union telecommunication minister Jyotiraditya Scindia cleared the government's stance over the issue, saying that spectrum will not be auctioned but it will be allocated administratively. He made it clear that the service providers will have to pay the cost.

The government on Tuesday said it will allot spectrum for satellite broadband administratively and not via auction. This came just a few hours after Musk called the auction route being sought by Ambani as "unprecedented".

The satellite spectrum allocation by the government of India has intensified lobbying by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio as it gets increasingly paranoid of Elon Musk-led Starlink and Jeff Bezos-led Amazon’s Project Kuiper that is vying for the project.

Telecom giants Sunil Mittal and Mukesh Ambani advocate for satellite companies to pay license fees and buy spectrum, arguing for a level playing field in the industry.

The fight over how India should allocate satellite broadband spectrum intensified on Tuesday as Elon Musk said any move by New Delhi to auction it, rather than allocate it, would be "unprecedented", challenging the position of rival billionaires.

Starlink boss Elon Musk said a move by India to auction satellite broadband spectrum, and not allocate it, would be "unprecedented", reacting to a Reuters story that rival billionaire Mukesh Ambani was lobbying for the auction route.